


Comic Book Superheroes

by storm_8



Series: Joys of Motherhood [53]
Category: Women's Murder Club (TV)
Genre: F/F, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-27
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 08:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_8/pseuds/storm_8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day at the park a boy pushes 4 year old Lily down the slide - Ashley comes to the rescue!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comic Book Superheroes

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the show or its characters. I merely borrow them for everyone's enjoyment.  
> I do own the original characters: I am quite fond of them!  
> All mistakes are mine.

Denise watched with a raised eyebrow as the redhead sitting next to her on the park bench scribbled furiously on the Puzzles’ section of that day’s San Francisco Register. Cindy was hunched over the newspaper, sporting a scowl like nothing the attorney had ever seen before, writing down numbers and making lines and scratching off other numbers. All while mumbling to herself about stupid, know-it-all, overpaid hacks that ever dared question her abilities to solve whatever it was she was trying to solve.

The incessant scratching of pen on paper and continued, vicious, barely understandable, mumbling was grating on the taller woman’s nerves and preventing her from reading her magazine in peace and quiet.

“Thomas! What in God’s name are you doing?!” She barked, snapping her Cosmopolitan closed and glaring at the reporter.

Cindy let out a startled ‘eek’ and turned wide eyed to her bench companion. She quickly recovered, the unhappy scowl returning to her features. “I’m solving the Register’s Sudoku! What else would I be doing?”

Denise looked at the reporter as if she’d finally lost it. “Sudoku? And this required you to basically destroy the paper and talk to yourself like a mad woman on death row?”

The redhead huffed. “I’m not crazy!” She defended, before raising an eyebrow and grinning impishly. “Is it bothering you? Can you not focus on that Iron Man comic book you’re hiding in there?” She pointed with her pen to the forgotten Cosmopolitan on her companion’s lap.

Denise sputtered for a good minute. It wasn’t something you’d see often.

Or ever.

The attorney growled and turned her head to glare at a random passerby. “I am _not_ reading a comic book!” She hissed through her clenched teeth.

Cindy giggled and gave the other woman a pat on the shoulder. Had she done that a few years before she’d be fearing for her life, but she’d long ago learned that a lot of Denise’s behaviour was more bark than bite. “Don’t worry, I won’t share your secret with anyone. Besides, Ashley just _loves_ it when you read them to her; she says Jill sucks at it and she gets annoyed when Linz tries – she always protests: ‘Mommy, you’re a police hero! You should know how to read this! Like superheroes and bad guys!!’.” She imitated her daughter’s whining and pout, drawing a smile from the dark haired woman.

“I just read them for her…” The attorney said quietly, looking out to the playground where the 6 year old Ashley was helping her little sister climb to the top of the slide. “The way she lights up when I tell her I have a new comic book for us to read… Iron Man is her favourite…”

Cindy smiled softly. “She really loves it.” She paused, hesitantly reaching out a hand and laying it upon the other woman’s clasped ones. “She loves you…”

Denise nodded absently.

The reporter left it at that, returning to her mind-boggling puzzle, while the attorney continued to watch her two nieces on the playground.

******

 

Ashley was on a mission.

She left her sister at the top of the slide and told her to wait for her signal. The six year old was now climbing through the playground bars across from the slide; she needed to get to the very top so she could see her little sister from the best spot when she slid down the red plastic contraption. It was very important and she was not afraid of the height of the bars, leaving several older kids behind as she slowly but surely climbed to the top.

If Cindy had been able to tear her focus away from her horribly difficult Sudoku, she’d have probably stalked over and demand that her stubborn daughter get down immediately.

As it was, the young girl was in luck and she managed to get to the highest bar and stand on it while grasping the last three feet of vertical metal to her right. She looked around from her vantage point, getting awed stares and pointed fingers from other kids on the playground.

The brunette girl spotted her mother and aunt on the bench and waved in their direction, as Denise looked on with a suspicious frown and hesitantly waved back. The woman could not help but wonder just _what_ exactly her niece was up to and pondered whether to try and get Cindy’s attention away from her furious scribbling.

Ashley, of course, was not concerned at all about the dangerous position she was in and focused on Lily, who was staring a bit wide-eyed at her big sister on top of the bars. The older girl waved and grinned at the little redhead, shouting: “Go, Lily, go!” and not caring that half the playground heard her.

The 4 year old girl took a hesitant step closer to the edge of the slide and looked down. It was rather high for a little girl like her, but she’d seen her big sister slide down many times and Ash had told her it was fun and not to be scared.

Lily scrunched up her nose, much like her mother when she was determined to help solve a case no matter the potential dangerous situations she might find herself in, and looked back to the grinning brunette atop the bars. The redhead waved and grinned, preparing herself to make her big sister proud.

The moment she started moving to sit on top of the slide to go down, a ten year old boy shoved her roughly and yelled for her to move. Lily shrieked, landed on her belly and went on a fast slide to the ground.

“HEY!!” Ashley shouted from atop the bars and all but jumped down, landing roughly on the sand on her hands and knees, and raced after the stupid boy, at the same time as Denise jumped up from the bench, with Cindy throwing her newspaper over her head and running after her.

Lindsay, Jill and Claire had been on their way back from the sandwich shop across the street, when they heard the commotion coming from the playground. Hearing Lily’s hysterical crying, the inspector took off running, leaving her two concerned friends to catch the two sandwiches she’d just thrown over her shoulder.

Cindy knelt down next to her crying daughter and scooped her into her arms. “Shh, it’s okay Lily. Mama’s got you, sweetie.” She cooed, trying to calm her down.

Denise looked around for Ashley, which wasn’t hard considering the 6 year old was yelling and running after a boy twice her size. The attorney moved after them just as her niece tackled the boy to the ground and the two children started fighting in earnest, shouting and trying to hit each other.

Lindsay stopped next to her lover and crying daughter and took in the chaos around them. Several concerned parents had run to join their children, a few others approaching Cindy and asking if her daughter was alright. Some of the older kids had circled the two fighting children and shouted encouragement, as Denise angrily stalked around them to get to her niece. That’s when the inspector realised that Ashley was right in the middle of the fight, kicking the boy’s shins and pulling on his ear viciously.

“Holy- What happened here?!” She asked in shock. Cindy barely glanced up, still trying to comfort her daughter. “Stay here.” The brunette told Claire and Jill just as they joined them, and stalked off towards the fight.

Denise stopped in her trek just shy of getting kicked by a wayward foot, and in an impressive show of strength, grabbed the boy by the collar of his t-shirt and pulled him off her growling niece.

“Hey! Let me go!” He shouted angrily, trying to kick her, only succeeding in flailing his legs midair.

“Silence!” The attorney demanded with a glare and dropped him unceremoniously on the floor.

Ashley had quickly gotten to her feet and was ready to launch herself at the boy again, when her mother grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. “Hey, hey! Ash! What are you doing?!” She asked incredulously.

“She hit me!” The boy yelled and then took two steps back when the dark haired woman turned to give him an evil look.

“What is this?!” A man started shouting. “What the hell are you doing to my son?!”

Ashley started yelling again, the boy yelling right back at her and Lindsay barely managed to keep hold of her daughter when she started struggling to get out of her grasp. “Ashley!” She said sternly. “Stop it right now!”

“Control your demon, woman!” The man shouted again, grabbing his son and pulling him behind himself. “What the hell have been teaching that child?!”

“ _Excuse me_?!” Lindsay asked indignantly. “Your son is the one fighting a girl half his size and age! What have _you_ been teaching _him_?!”

“Your son pushed a four year old down the slide!” Denise added, stepping in front of the inspector, who was still trying to hold back her daughter. “She could have gotten seriously hurt!”

“ _WHAT_?!” The brunette shouted. “He _pushed_ Lily off the slide?! Are you kidding me?!”

“I did not!” The boy had the nerve to shout.

“Did too! I saw it!” Ashley started yelling again. “Mommy, I was watching! He pushed Lily! He _hurt_ Lily!”

Were the circumstances different, Lindsay would have found her daughter’s protectiveness towards her little sister absolutely endearing and maybe a bit over the top, but just this one time she was more than ready to agree. That kid had hurt her little girl and then gotten into a fight with her oldest daughter, and now his father had the nerve to be yelling at them?

Denise watched as the inspector’s features darkened dangerously. She reached down and grasped her niece’s arm firmly and moved them back, noticing Claire, Jill and Cindy eyeing them in concern.

The man was ready to start yelling again when Lindsay got right in his personal space and glared ferociously. “Listen here! I am not apologizing for what my daughter did to your excuse of son! He can’t go around pushing smaller kids off the damn slide!! I suggest you just get lost before I decide to punch you in the face for trying to defend this kid, when clearly everyone saw what he did to my daughter.”

Several people around them nodded and murmured in agreement, giving credit to her assumption.

“Just who do you think you are to threaten me?!” The man was steadily getting red in the face. “I am not afraid of you, bitch!”

“Oh dear…” Jill quickly got to her feet, from where she’d been running a hand through Lily’s curls, and all but ran to her best friend’s side.

The inspector about lost it, pulling her jacket back and reaching for the gun on her hip.

Denise’s eyes widened. “ _Lindsay_.” She said in warning as Jill reached for the brunette’s arm, grabbing her hand as it touched the gun holster.

“I dare you to call me a bitch again. I’ll have your ass in jail before you can utter your next word.” Lindsay stated coldly, her steely gaze never leaving the man in front of her.

Realizing he had just been yelling at a police officer, the man lost all his bluster and all but grabbed his son and stalked away without another word.

The brunette glared some more for good measure and then released a long, shaky breath. “I wasn’t really gonna pull my gun out, you know…” She told Jill, who was still holding onto her hand. “Give me a little credit.” She pouted, slightly offended.

The blonde attorney just sighed in relief and then smacked her friend on the arm. “You had me scared for a moment… I’m gonna get back to Lily.” She said as the brunette turned to look at her scowling daughter clutching Denise’s leg. “Move along people! Nothing left here for you to see!” The blonde DA stared all the onlookers down until they started moving and returning to their own business, before moving away as well.

The inspector knelt down and reached out a hand to the little girl. “Ash, come here.”

The girl shook her head. “No. ‘m not saying sorry! He _pushed_ Lily!” The girl insisted stubbornly.

“Sweetie, you’re covered in scratches…” Denise started to say, only to have the girl let go of her leg and glare up at her.

“Doesn’t matter! He’s a stupid boy and he hurt Lily! He can’t do that!”

“Ash, listen to me.” Lindsay held out a hand to her scowling daughter, who refused to take it. “I’m not mad at you, okay? I’m worried. You’re all dirty and have scratches on your knees, are you okay?” She asked, the concern evident in her voice.

The child glared stubbornly at the ground and kicked a pebble angrily, before shaking her head. “It hurts, mommy.” She said quietly.

“I know it does. That’s why you can’t go around picking fights with other kids, Ash, especially if they are older than you. You might get hurt.”

“But he pushed Lily, mommy!” The girl whined again. “She was on the slide and I said not to be scared, ‘cause she was a bit scared, and that it is fun to slide down. And she was gonna do it and then he pushed her! She’s hurt and crying, mommy! I don’ like Lily crying.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Lindsay soothed gently, Denise kneeling down and running a hand through her niece’s wild hair. “Lily is alright. Mama and aunt Claire are taking care of her, see?” The inspector gestured to the bench where the rest of their family was gathered, trying to cheer up a still sniffling Lily. Claire was crouched down in front of the little girl, cleaning the scratches on her knees from when she’d landed on the ground.

“How about we go over and you can check for yourself that Lily is going to be fine?” The dark haired attorney suggested, wiping off the sand from the girl’s jean shorts.

The brunette sniffled and nodded, reaching out for her mother, who was more than willing to hold the child in her arms. “It’s alright Ash. There’s no need to cry…”

******

 

Lily whimpered and clutched her mother’s arm tighter when Claire passed a wet towel over her scratched knee.

“Shh, it’s okay Lily…” Cindy soothed and dropped a soft kiss to her daughter’s fiery curls. “Aunt Claire is almost done…”

“I’m sorry sweetie, I know this hurts.” The medical examiner said, reaching for the water bottle at her side and wetting the towel again. “Let me see your elbow and then we’re done, okay? And then we’ll find you some colourful band-aids…” The woman knew Cindy always carried a handful of them whenever she left the house with her children, seeing as Ashley was more injury prone than anyone she’d ever met.

The little girl sniffled and then put on her brave face, holding out her right arm. She bit her lip when her aunt gently cleaned her elbow and closed one eye in a grimace. Jill found it absolutely adorable.

“Oh hey, look who’s back…” The blonde alerted them to Lindsay’s approach with a sniffling Ashley in her arms, as Denise still attempted to clean off the sand covering the girl’s shorts.

The inspector set her daughter down by the bench and knelt down as well, gently patting Lily’s legs to get her attention. “How are you, sweetie?”

The little redhead opened her eye and pouted. “Mommy, the boy pushed me down!”

“Yes, I know. And now you’re hurt and your new dress is all dirty…” The brunette leaned up and kissed her daughter’s forehead.

“Stupid boy!” Muttered Ashley, running her arm under her nose and then wiping the rest of her tears away. She shuffled closer to the bench and clambered up to sit next to her sister, leaning over to kiss her cheek and hold her hand.

Cindy and Lindsay smiled softly at the display and Jill about swooned at the cuteness of it all.

Lily smiled a pretty little smile and then frowned, turning her sister’s hand to look at the palm. “Ash, your hand… Mama!”

“Yes, sweetie, I can see.” Cindy soothed, taking Ashley’s hand in her own to look at the scrapped palm. “Don’t worry. We’ll clean it up and then put on some band-aids.”

Claire set down Lily’s arm, having finished her perusal of the scratch, and tsked at her other niece. The brunette girl pouted, pulling her hand away and hiding it behind her back. “He pushed Lily!” She insisted once more, to justify her bruises. “I jus’ got down from the bars and ran to teach ‘im a lesson. He can’t push Lily!”

The adults chuckled, Cindy smiling amusedly and Denise frowning down at her niece. “You _jumped_ down from the bars, that’s how you scraped your hands.” The attorney stated sternly. Lindsay raised an eyebrow and turned to look at said bars.

“Ashley, how many times have I told you not to climb those bars?” The reporter admonished with a sigh. “You are not Spiderman, you could get hurt if you fall down.”

“Indeed, and then you go and turn into the damn Incredible Hulk on a boy much bigger than you…” The asian woman muttered under her breath and shook her head in dismay.

Jill snorted and then started laughing when Ashley pouted fiercely at her lover. Lindsay chuckled and patted her daughter’s leg.

“Linz, don’t encourage her.” Cindy started to say with a frown.

“I’m not. But for today I’m gonna let it slide because that stupid kid pushed my daughter off the slide. I don’t care, he deserved to be taught a lesson from our little superhero! You can’t mess with the superhero’s little sister!” The inspector stated with a pointed finger, leaving no room for arguments.

The reporter sighed loudly in dismay and then turned her gaze on Denise. ‘This is all your fault!’ She mouthed at her. “All those comic books…” She muttered, pulling a giggling Lily onto her lap to make room on the bench. Denise just raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘bite me’ and crossed her arms.

Claire smiled indulgently at the overprotective inspector and beaming children, before shooing her away. “That’s all well and good, now move so I can look at the superhero’s bruises.”

Lindsay huffed but got to her feet.

“Wait!” Ashley exclaimed suddenly. She reached down to her shorts and popped the button on one of the leg pockets. She stuck a hand in, fumbling around a bit before pulling out a handful of band-aids. “Here.” She went through her small collection and took out two yellow ones with Iron Man on them and a blue one with Wonder Woman and held them out for Lily. “You can have these.”

Lily stared in awe at the offered band-aids. “Bu’… Iron Man is your favourite… And you only ‘ave two…”

The brunette child shrugged. “S’okay. You can have ‘em. I’ll put… humm…” She looked down to her hand holding the remaining band-aids. “Superman and… Spiderman! To match my shirt.” She stated proudly. “And the yellow matches your dress!”

The 4 year old redhead giggled and then scrambled off her mother’s lap to hug her big sister and get her band-aids.

Jill about suffered an overdose of cuteness and couldn’t resist fishing out her camera and taking at least three pictures, Denise smiling softly behind her. Claire just chuckled to herself, while Lindsay and Cindy beamed at each other in pride over their amazing daughters.

 


End file.
